Environmental aspects of Hungarian consumers’ food choice

Enhancing of environmental awareness is not just a local aim, is a global priority that will contribute to ensuring a sustainable future. As one of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations as well as among the key areas of the FOOD2030 priorities, sustainable and healthy diets have to be promoted both locally and globally. Even the environmental aspects are not the leading elements of the Hungarian consumers’ food choice (Törőcsik, 2009; Hofmeister-Tóth et al., 2011) and the rate of the most committed consumer group to sustainability is almost 8% (Lehota et al., 2014), the level of awareness is constantly rising (Dudás, 2011; Gulyás, 2017). In order to support this process identification of the intervention points is essential. Thus the aim of the present paper was to examine the appearance of the environmental factors in Hungarian consumers’ food choice decisions and their relation to the level of healthy lifestyle.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

ÉLELMISZER-VÁLASZTÁST: Befolyásoló Tényezők

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Comparison of the ingestion of fibre rich foods in different countries

Introduction: The ingestion of fruits, vegetables and cereals, especially whole grain, is associated with a healthy lifestyle and has been recognized as having multiple health benefits, associated, among others, to the ingestion of adequate amounts of dietary fibre. Objective: The aim of this work was to evaluate some eating habits related to fibre rich foods in six different countries: Argentina, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal and Romania. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out by means of questionnaire survey applied to a sample of 4905 participants, all over the age of 18 years old. The preparation and application of the questionnaire followed the necessary ethical guidelines and the treatment was made by SPSS. Results: The results showed that for the global sample was observed a low ingestion of salads and vegetables (78.2%), being this particularly problematic for Croatia (86.6%). Regarding the consumption of fruits, for the whole sample the great majority also showed a low consumption (92.3%), and for Latvian participants the percentage is very much expressive (98.3%). As for the consumption of whole cereals, most participants also showed a low consumption, either for the global sample (72.6%) or in the different countries, and particularly for Latvia (90.0%). Some eating habits were also studied and it was observed that for the whole sample 71.9% showed a low frequency of meals ate out of home, while 88.6% revealed acceptable frequency of eating fast food, i.e, only once or twice a week. Conclusions: The results indicated that in the countries at study the ingestion of foods rich in dietary fibre is very low, and therefore it is necessary to implement strategies to increase the consumption of such foods.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Intake of fiber-rich foods among medical and dietetics students from University of Medicine and Pharmacy

Background: Romania was found to be the country with the highest frequency of obesity in the EU, also cardiovascular diseases and cancer represent the main cause of mortality. Diet is an important associated factor for a number of complex chronic diseases, such as obesity, type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. One of the cause of these is the low intake of fibers from diet. Our objective was to assess the total dietary fiber intake, consumption habits and the knowledge about food fibres among our medical students, also to identify the major sources of dietary fiber from menu. Material and methods: Our study was based on a cross-sectional evaluation using a questionnaire filled in by our students in 2015, regarding their food behavior, food intake and knowledge about fiber importance. The average participant’s age was around 22 years old. Data analysis was performed using SPSS, version 19.0. Results: The mean dietary fiber intake were 18.7 g/day for medical students and 24.4 g/day for dietetics students, lower than the intake level recommended by the Romanian Dietary Guidelines (25 g per day for women and 38 g per day for men). Foods with the highest frequency of daily intake for medical students were white bread (at 91%), butter (64%), milk (84.5%), vegetables (77%), fruits (22%) and low-nutritious foods (62%). Only 7% of the dietetics students said they have fiber-rich foods daily in their menu. The level of nutrients intake didnt reflect major signs of concern in the proportion of protein (14.3%), carbohydrates (58.7%) or lipids (27%), being close to OMS recommendations. Conclusion: Food labels are generally known to have an important role in communicating product-related information to consumers and are considered to have the potential to influence food choice and dietary behaviour. However, tis is not enough, being necessary to sustain a proper community intervention in schools and universities to inform young people about the importance of fibers in the menu

Mean Dietary Fiber Intake of Romanian Adults Results of a Survey Questionnaire

The role of dietary fibers is crucial especially for the prevention of degenerative diseases and cancer. The purpose of this study was to find practical mathematical formulas to calculate the mean dietary fiber intake of Romanian adult population. Based on the intakes of vegetables, fruits and whole cereals we calculated the Mean Dietary Fiber Intake/day/person (MDFI). Our research shows that the national average MDFI was 9.8 g fiber/day/person, meaning 38% of Dietary Requirements, and the rest of 62% representing a fiber gap that we have to take into account. Public health programs actions sustained and developed by the Romanian Dietitians should be taken towards increasing the consumption of fiber-rich products associated with an increased frequency of physical activity, because these actions will be helpful in reducing chronic diseases incidence in Romania.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio